Spotlight on

Today I'd like to shine a little bloggy love light on a most amazing artist, Marc Johns.

Unlike some other working artists, Johns is nothing but accessible: he has a blog, a shop, a book, and quite a following.  Allow me to show you a small sampling and I think you'll see why so many folks are so taken with his work.

Johns plays with unexpected juxtaposition like nobody else.  His deceptively simple style allows even a repeat offender doodler like me to enter his world fearlessly.  All that is required of you is to suspend your idea of reality, or at the very least, to stretch it a little.

Writing about himself: "I generally aim to say as much as possible with as few elements as possible. My work often leans toward humour. Finding the humour in things often leads to truth."

From his blog:

Some of my favorites are taken from a number of series that have developed around a topic.  The following are samples from a run of drawings Johns made considering what happens when inanimate objects begin to read.

For me, reacting to a Johns drawing is a little like being lovingly teased.  It is fun, there is tension right underneath that fun, and that tension is always tethered by some truth.  

Johns writes that his work "is blogged about by someone, somewhere, every day, and many of his fans have tattoos of his drawings."  Today, that someone is me.  At least on the blogging front.  I'm not planning on any tattoos at the moment but you just never know.  Maybe this one.....

So very meta....